


Alternate Choices

by Blaiddsumu



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Gideon Rises, Gen, Stan spills everything, i had more inspiration for some of it than other parts whoops, not literally but figuratively, the quality of writing may change halfway through this, yet another thing i've written instead of doing my actual english assignment oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 04:54:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13540110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blaiddsumu/pseuds/Blaiddsumu
Summary: Stan Pines had a choice. After recovering his home, and the second Journal, from that Gideon kid, his two great-niblings decided to show him something. The third Journal. He could go the easy route, by lying to the kids and taking the book, playing it off as nonsense and inspiration. Or, he could tell them the truth.Stan Pines made a choice. In one reality, he laughed it off, saying things about “spookums and monsters” and this book putting nonsense into the kids’ heads before going downstairs with all three journals finally in his possession. But here, in this reality, he made a different choice.In other words, where Stan decides to tell the kids everything when Dipper shows him the Journal at the end of Gideon Rises.





	Alternate Choices

**Author's Note:**

> I think up a lot of hypothetical situations when i'm trying to go to sleep and sometimes i write them  
> this is one of those times where i write them

Stan Pines had a choice. After recovering his home, and the second Journal, from that Gideon kid, his two great-niblings decided to show him something. The third Journal. Apparently, Dipper had found it at the beginning of summer. Heh, no wonder the kid kept on trying to find all the supernatural stuff with the town, that darn book.

The book he’d been searching for, for some thirty years. He was in shock by how suddenly not one, but both other Journals all but came into his possession. He contemplated what to say, turning pages in the book one by one as the twins watched until he came across a familiar blueprint.

Stan Pines had a choice. He could go the easy route, by lying to the kids and taking the book, playing it off as nonsense and inspiration. Or, he could tell them the truth. He could tell them he’d been lying about the supernatural, about _everything_. He could even pretend to believe them, keep up the ruse that he had no idea about anything supernatural in town, but with this evidence he might believe the kids.

Stan Pines made a choice. In one reality, he laughed it off, saying things about “spookums and monsters” and this book putting nonsense into the kids’ heads before going downstairs with all three journals finally in his possession. But here, in this reality, he made a different choice.

After a long pause, he slowly closed the journal, taking a long look at the six-fingered hand on the cover before turning his head towards the twins. Eye contact was suddenly a lot harder, the inquisitive looks the twins were giving him were much too innocent. And they might just change to something a lot less innocent, something much harder to look at once he admitted what he had done. He almost backed out at that thought, but he pushed forward. He’d been too silent for too long to play it off as nothing.

“Grunkle Stan?” Mabel asked, slowly. Stan looked back down to the book in his hands, letting out one final, world-weary, sigh before looking back up at each twin in turn.

“Kids, I, uh. I’ve been lying to you guys, I’m sorry.” He admitted. Dipper’s eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

“What are you talking about, Grunkle Stan?” He asked. Stan could clearly hear the confusion in his tone, mixed with a little but of what seemed like anger.

“Look, I… I know about all this weirdness. I lied to you guys ‘cause I thought I could protect you from it.” Stan said, looking away and back down at the journal and into his reflection on the gold leaf, “Heh, looks like I couldn’t stop ya from messin’ with all this town’s weirdness, could I?”

“Wait, what?” Mabel said, after a tense silence. Stan didn’t dare even look at Dipper’s face. “So you’re saying…”

She trailed off, not finishing her thought completely. Stan tapped his foot impatiently, anxious as to what she was going to say, if she’d still like him or if they’d hate him now that he admitted to lying to them.

“Look kid, if ya hate m--” He was interrupted by a loud, high-pitched squeal coming from around the same area as his niece. “AAH! What the heck?”

“Ohmygosh Grunkle Stan, you weird old man! You really do care about us! And you’ve been trying to protect us in your own weird old man ways! Eeeee!” Mabel said, jumping at him and wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Woah, woah, Mabel! I haven’t even told ya everything, slow down a minute.” He said, setting down the journal and peeling Mabel off of himself. He looked over at Dipper, but the kid’s expression was unreadable.

“Everything? What do you mean by that?” Mabel asked, tilting her head to the side. Dipper gave him an inquisitive look, but fortunately it didn’t seem like he was too angry.

Stan looked around the room, trying to think of what to say next. “It, uh. It’s complicated…”

“I think… It might be better to show you guys.” He said after a moment. He was surprised the kids were being so patient with him, but he figured they could tell how hard this was for him to say. They were two of the sweetest kids he’d met, and quite mature and understanding for their age sometimes. He slowly stood up, grabbing the journal and tucking it into his jacket as he did so, and motioned to the twins to follow him. Dipper finally took the opportunity to talk, supposedly having finally taken in this new information and thoroughly thought it through.

“Grunkle Stan, I think… I get why you lied to us, a little bit, but I’m still kinda angry about it.” He said, slowly. Oh, good, the kid still wasn’t angry enough to not call him “grunkle” anymore. That was relieving, but there was still a lot that the kid was going to learn that might change that.

“Nah, Kid. I’d be angry too.” He admitted. “C’mere, you two. You guys deserve to see this.” He led them out of the attic and down into the gift shop. They all stood in front of the vending machine, Stan hesitating once again as he tried to think of what to say.

“The vending machine? Grunkle Stan, I hate to break this to you but we’ve seen this like, every time we’ve been in the gift shop.” Mabel said, incredulously.

“Yeah, Grunkle Stan, I thought you wanted to show us something important.” Dipper echoed.

Stan smiled at the two kids slightly, before turning back towards the vending machine. “Actually, kids, you may want to take that back.” he said as he inputted the code into the keypad. He stepped back, pulling the twins back as well so they wouldn’t get hit, as the machine let out a hiss of air and swung away from the wall. He looked straight ahead, trying his hardest to not let himself see the kids’ faces.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Mabel begin to bounce excitedly and Dipper put his hand up to his chin in deep thought. He couldn’t help but smile to himself at that. They really were some great kids, and smart too, he wouldn’t blame them if they hated him after this.

“Oh, so that’s why it’s been out-of-order this entire summer!” Mabel shouted, suddenly motionless before bouncing even _more_ excitedly. Stan looked over at her in surprise. Out of all the reactions he had been expecting, this was not one of them.

“Eh?”

“I’ve always wondered why nobody’s fixed it, but I get it now!” she said, looking up to Stan with stars in her eyes, “Nobody pays attention to an out-of-order vending machine, nevermind suspects it would be a secret door!”

She stilled, expression settling into something more serious. “Though… why do you have a secret door behind the vending machine?” She asked.

“Yeah, and where’s it lead?” Dipper asked. Whatever he had felt that had made him upset at Stan was gone, completely overrun by curiosity.

Stan looked away, an arm reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

“Well, uh, y’see... that’s the hard part. Just, don’t come to any conclusions until I’m done tellin’ ya everythin’, okay?” He asked, looking at Mabel and then Dipper. They both nodded, giving each other uncertain looks.

He reached out and gently took each twin by the hand, leading them down the stairs and into the elevator.

“Wooah, what _is_ this place? Grunkle Stan, you didn’t tell us about a secret basement!” Dipper said, taking in his surroundings with wide eyes. Stan ruffled his hair.

“It wouldn’t be secret if I told ya, now, would it?” he said, light-heartedly. Dipper smiled at that.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” he admitted.

Mabel squeaked in surprise as the elevator stopped with a jerk and a loud groan.

“This elevator sure has character!” she said, nervously. “It’s not gonna break, is it? It’s like. A million years old! I guess that would be fun though.” she laughed. Stan rolled his eyes.

“Nah, ya gremlin. It’s been workin’ fine for some thirty years, it’s not gonna break anytime soon.”

The doors opened with a swoosh, creaking only a little bit, to reveal a long room filled with blinking lights and machines. The twins were silent as he led them towards the the end of the room. He pulled out the third journal and set it down on this desk below the observation window, setting it in clear sight before turning back towards the two kids.

“That Journal, I’ve been looking for it for some thirty years.” he admitted. Dipper nodded, a pen in his hand and notebook out that Stan hadn’t noticed he’d grabbed.

“And, uh, when that little goblin-boy Gideon was arrested, I found this.” He pulled out the second Journal and held it up for the twins to see.

“So _he_ had it! That’s why he was so interested in my journal.” Dipper said, chewing on the tip of his pen as he thought.

“But why’d we have to come down here, in this creepy cool scifi basement, for you to show us that?” Mabel asked. Stan, after a moment of contemplation, pulled out the rolling chair and sat down in it with a sigh.

“Alright, kiddos, I’m gonna tell you two a story, and you’re gonna wanna sit down for this.” he said. The twins promptly did so, Mabel just plopping down on the spot while Dipper more sensibly found a box and pulled it over to sit on. They looked up at Stan with expectant expressions. Stan was surprised they’ve listened to him for so long; he supposed their natural curiosity kept them from getting angry and storming away or whatever kids do.

“Well then, where do I start…” Stan mused.

“Start with what the _heck_ this place is!” Mabel interrupted. She leaned forward and rested her chin on Stan’s knee, putting on her best puppy-dog face.

“Yeesh kiddo, you know I can’t say no to that face,” he replied, and Dipper laughed at his sister’s antics. Stan shook his head.

“No, if I start with that you’ll only end up more confused. Howabout… let’s go to a lifetime ago, when I was just a kid like you two.” Stan said, looking off into the distance as he gathered his thoughts. He might have heard Mabel whisper to Dipper something about it being “a million years ago”, but he was too caught up in his own memory to correct her. He stopped himself from continuing, however, as he realized something that would be rather important for the kids to know. He looked back at them, putting a hand on his knee and leaning forward.

“You know, I had a twin just like you two?”

“Wait, _what_?” Mabel gasped dramatically, almost shouting. She paused, a look a realization crossing her face as she fully comprehended what Stan had just said. “ _Wait, WHAT?_ ”

“Hah! Yep, my twin brother. Not to be confused with your Grandpa, Shermie.” Stan laughed. Dipper nodded wisely before adopting a serious expression, a mixture of emotions crossing his face for a moment.

“Okay… how do we know you’re not making this up?” he asked, “I mean, we’ve never heard of a ‘twin brother’ before, how do we know you’re not gonna, I don’t know, pin the blame on ‘him’?” His voice began to rise, curiosity giving way to frustration.

Stan nodded and turned around instead of saying anything, pulling an aged piece of paper out of the cubby on the desk. He handed it to Dipper, letting the kid see for himself.

“Figured you’d say that. In fact, I was kinda wonderin’ where your usual suspicion was, to be honest.”

Dipper frowned, then showed the picture to Mabel. It depicted what looked like a young Stan with his arm around another, skinnier version of himself. They both were wearing boxing gloves and shorts, and no shirt on either one. The one that was obviously Stan had his hair slicked back, and the other was wearing glasses.

“That’s my twin brother. I get why ya don’t believe me quite yet, but it’ll all make sense when I’m done.” Stan explained. He really didn’t blame Dipper for getting frustrated, honestly he was just relieved the kid wasn’t taking all this any worse.

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Grunkle Stan. ” Dipper said, tone accusatory. Mabel nodded along with his words, trying to put her most serious expression on. It didn’t really fit her.

“Okay, okay. Where were we? Oh, right, a lifetime ago…” Stan said, trailing off once again. He took a deep breath before launching into his story. He divulged the most important but basic details of his childhood, from how he and his brother would spend almost every waking moment together to their regular tormenting bullies. He told them about his brother’s birth defect, six fingers on each hand, and Dipper got a funny expression on his face, as if he thought he might have figured something out but wasn’t sure about it and didn’t know if it was actually true.

He told them about the Stan O’ War, how they found it when they were even younger than Dipper and Mabel, and how it became their own special pet project that they worked on through their adolescence and teenage years. A bittersweet smile formed on his face as he talked. The Stan O’ War had been one of his biggest and brightest dreams, but that dream had ended in a horrible way.

He told them how, as they grew up, his brother became more and more interested in school and college, until one day… one day, his brother’s science fair project was so amazing, so promising, that the admissions team from one of the biggest colleges in tech were personally coming from the other side of the country to see it. Stan hadn’t wanted his brother to leave him, since he knew there was no chance in heck he was going to the same place his brother was; his principal was right when he said Stan would be lucky if he even graduated high school.

He told them how with one dumb mistake he was kicked out of house and home, eliciting a whine of sadness from Mabel, a mistake that could have easily been prevented by any number of ways. He had been walking through the empty school and caught sight of his brother’s project, slamming the table in a fit of who-knows-what (rage? jealousy? fear?). He honestly thought the machine was fine, and didn’t want to bother his brother the night before his presentation (in reality, he was probably more afraid his brother would react negatively. Sometimes, the irony of that makes him laugh, a bitter, humorless laugh.).

He told them how his brother was upset, understandably enough, and Stan just had to try and cheer his brother up in just about the worst way possible. When he was just a teen, he hadn’t realized why his brother had gotten so upset, but years of contemplating on that night led him to conclude that it really was all his fault, even if he was too prideful to admit it.

He told them how he went on to travel the country (and sometimes outside of it), eventually ending up swindling people out of their money as a traveling salesman. He omitted the darker parts of those years, when he got in more than his fair share of trouble with all manner of deadly criminals, when he spent time in jail, when he felt like anything was better than living, when he lived out of just his car. Those years blended together into one long, painful, period of growth for him, as a person.

He told them how, after years of no contact at all, his brother sent him a postcard out of the blue with only the words “PLEASE COME” written on it. From what little he knew, his brother had managed to graduate from college, though not the one he wanted, with a Phd and a grant, and had gone off somewhere to do research. This postcard, which looked to be frantically written, was nothing close to what he had expected. He didn’t know what to think. Despite that, he left to Gravity Falls, Oregon, practically dropping everything (though there wasn’t much to drop) at the request of his brother.

He told them about the fight between he and his brother; his brother had greeted him at the door as a disheveled, paranoid mess with a crossbow pointed at Stan’s face, then said Stan was the only person he could trust. He showed him some weird scifi nonsense, then asked him to take his dumb book and get as far away from him as possible. His brother brought up their childhood dream, only to tell Stan to leave. Stan had been upset, but there was no reason for him to threaten to burn his brother’s book, which eventually led to a full-blown fight between the two, both wrestling for the book.

He told them how he got burned, how he wasn’t thinking as he shoved the book into his brother’s chest and sent him floating up towards the portal. How his brother had quickly been enveloped by the portal while Stan could do nothing but watch. How he could not sleep, for nights and nights after the incident. He spent the vast majority of his time down in the basement, trying anything and everything to get his brother back.

He told them how eventually, his brother’s food supply ran out and he had to go into town. They mistook him for his brother, and he had no choice but to make them believe it. He had to take his brother’s identity and ended up turning the house into a tourist trap to pay for the mortgage and repairs to the portal. He told them how his name was actually Stanley, not Stanford, that he’d been lying to everyone about everything, and how sorry he was but not really sorry, since this was all for his brother.

About how everything he worked for, everything he cared about, was for his family.

When he finished, he could only wait patiently for the kids to fully process what he told them. He wanted desperately a reaction out of them, any kind of reaction be it good or bad, but he knew that they needed time to sort everything out in their heads. They had identical shocked expressions on their faces. He rolled the chair back and swung his legs slightly, looking around for something to distract him from his thoughts.

“...” Mabel opened her mouth as if to talk, but closed it after a moment, seemingly trying to take in too much information to talk. It would have been better if his brother were here, telling the story alongside Stan.

“Wow, kiddo, didn’t know _you_ could be at a loss of words, heh, you’ve always got somethin’ to say.” Stan said, nervously. He cursed at himself inwardly. He didn’t need the approval of a couple of kids, but he cared way too much for them to not like him anymore. Not that he’d blame them, of course, but he’d feel terrible if they hated him. The framed picture of the two sitting on the desk behind him attested to how much they mattered to him.

The silence stretched on, becoming almost tangible as it thickened with Stan’s tension. It was Dipper who finally spoke, breaking through the viscous atmosphere.

“So… it was your _brother_ who wrote the Journals?” he asked, getting more excited and loud as he talked, unintentionally easing the mood. Stan smiled, glad that finally one of the kids said something, though he hadn’t been expecting that particular question.

“Uh, yep. He wrote all three of ‘em.” he reached behind him and pulled out the first journal, showing them the “Property of Stanford Pines” slip on one of the first pages. Mabel finally vocalized something as she read it.

“Augh! This story is so _sad_ , Grunkle Stan!” she cried, suddenly moving forward. She jumped into his lap and snuggled into a ball, looking up at him with watery, but determined, eyes. “We need to get your brother back, ASAP.”

“Yeah!” Dipper affirmed. He looked at the journal in his hands almost reverently, but walked forward and placed it on the desk behind Stan.

“There was some sorta blueprint thing in my journal, I bet that was for this portal, and I bet these other two journals have the rest of the blueprints.” he said, flipping all three open and confirming his suspicions as he found the pages. Stan’s eyes went wide and he spun around, propping up the journals as he began to input the code he’d need.

Before his eyes and against all odds, lights began to switch on as the portal started up in front of them. He stood up quickly, almost unconsciously tucking his niece under his arm and ignoring the fact that he sent his chair flying out behind him, and ran to the door leading to the portal room. Dipper pressed a button and the door slid open, more lights switching on as the trio walked into the large room.

“Woaah, it’s working!” Mabel said. Stan grunted in reply. He couldn’t have said it better. He should have probably set her down before now, too.

But that didn’t matter.

The only thing that mattered now was that he was so much closer to finally

finally getting his brother back.

After all these years.

He didn’t care what would happen next, he just knew that

nothing would get in his way

And no one would be able to stop them from getting his brother back.

Even if it meant the end of the world.

 

“Here we go.”

**Author's Note:**

> (if you're wondering why dipper and mabel believed stan so easily, well...)   
>  (they're _twelve_ , and didn't just go through a world-changing series of events that led them to question everything they thought they knew)


End file.
